Board Gaming Cases

Board and card games are becoming big business. This explosion in the industry has brought about a slew of new titles, revived interest in old ones and generally made things better for players and creators alike.

However, every time a creative industry booms, there will inevitably be a gold rush toward it. With that gold rush comes both plagiarism and allegations of plagiarism, both of which can greatly hurt the industry. This came to head in back-to-back plagiarism stories that rocked the board game industry this year.

The first happened in April. Game publisher Wonder Dice was accused by a group of French board game designers of plagiarizing its new game, Alien: USCSS Nostromo, from designer Francois Bachelart.

Though there are disputes over how much is similar between the games and no one was accused of illegal behavior, the community backlash was strong. In responding to the allegations, Wonder Dice threatened to sue its critics, prompting an even stronger backlash.

But, shortly after that story died down, an even more significant one appeared. Overturn, a game that was seeking funding on Kickstarter, had blown through all of its funding and was receiving worldwide attention. However, with that attention came scrutiny and soon players discovered plagiarism in the game’s manual, artwork and miniatures.

Stories such as these are not going away and, as the industry grows, will only become more popular. As such, it’s worthwhile to look at what is plagiarism in board games and, more to the point, what can be protected by intellectual property and what can not.

Copyright, Trademark & Patent

Board games require a massive amount of creativity in a variety of areas to make. However, not all that creativity can be protected by copyright, trademark or other intellectual property.

Inside a board game’s box is a variety of material that can be (and likely is) protected by copyright. All of the artwork of the game, including the board itself, any cards or miniatures it includes and any drawings in the instruction booklet are all protectable under copyright.

Similarly, any text that’s part of the game is also protected. This includes the text of the rules, the writing on any cards (if there’s enough to meet the threshold for creativity) and so forth.

However, due to the cost and effort required to obtain a patent, patents are relatively rare in board games, especially for new developers. This is especially true since patents only last 20 years (15 years for design patents), making them the shortest-lived form of intellectual property.

As such, even if a board game’s process can be protected by a patent, many developers either choose not to or are unable to do so. As such, the processes are, very often, not protectable at all.

Board Game Plagiarism Meets Intellectual Property

From an ethical standpoint, just about any part of a board game can be plagiarized. Since it takes creativity and effort to develop the process of the game, to draft the rules, create the art and so forth, copying it without attribution is a form of plagiarism.

After all, plagiarism as an ethical infraction is about taking the work and creativity of others and claiming it for your own.

Due to the physical nature of board games, the cloning problem is not nearly as severe as for example in video games. Instead, cases remind Alien: USCSS Nostromo, where the works involved are similar but it’s not a clone by any reasonable standard. This raises a whole separate issue of what is simply good board game design vs. what is unique to one game. This is something that is often only obvious in hindsight as we see how the field evolves.

In short, what represents an evolution in board gaming vs. what is associated with just one game isn’t always a bright line. That’s something that will be important to remember as plagiarism controversies arise in the field.

Bottom Line: the Evolution

The biggest change in board gaming isn’t just its growth, it’s the rise of small, independent developers that are publishing games while bypassing the large corporations that previously served as gatekeepers.

This is going to set the stage for some heated conversations about plagiarism and appropriation in that field. The two battles we discussed above are likely just the beginning, especially as more and more new designers attempt to get into the industry.

The community will have a major role in this. Their voice will ultimately decide what is an ethical advancement in the industry and what is a plagiarism. Sadly, there’s no easy answer to that challenge. It is just something that will have to be resolved over the next several years, likely one battle at a time.